See-Far Day

Yesterday I finally went in for LASIK surgery. I chose to have both eyes fixed for distance rather than mono vision, which would focus one eye far and one eye near. I think that would drive me crazy.

The Procedure

After five or six weeks of doctor visits to have my corneas measured and waiting for them to stabilize after having worn gas-permeable contacts for 20 years--hard lenses distort the corneas--Chieko and I drove up to the Cowboy Partners building, where we entered on the 1st floor and went down two floors to the 3rd floor, which is where the TLC Laser Center is. (The building is on the side of a hill with the entrance up the hill on Wasatch Blvd and the third floor down the hill facing Big Cottonwood Canyon Road but with no entrance there).

I signed a stack of forms that said I understood all the things that could possibly go wrong--about three pages worth.

The nurse put some iodine-like sticky brown goop on my eyelids and around my eyes, dropped anesthetic in each eye, and asked if I wanted Valium. I declined. At 9:30 a.m. I walked into the laser room, lay on a bed, and Dr. Ballif clamped something around my right eye to hold the eyelid and lower eyelid open and stuck a suction ring on the eye to hold the cornea firm. The eye was numb, but it felt like he was pushing my eyeball into my brain--not really painful, but quite a bit of pressure.

He then positioned me so my eye was under the intralase machine and told me to focus on the red light. After about 15 seconds, some beeps, and a ring of white dots that disappeared one by one, my right cornea had a flap cut into it. I was going to go with having the flap cut with a blade (keratome) but changed my mind at the last minute, even though the laser cost about $1,200 more. It just seemed safer than a blade. While the machine was cutting, everything went fuzzy, then black, then somewhat into focus again. To cut the flap, the laser created bubbles about 150 micrometres deep (about 1-1/2 hair widths deep). The doctor then used what looked like, from my fuzzy point of view, a pair of tweezers to peel the flap back.

(Not my eye, but I suppose it looked like this.)

He then positioned my eye under a machine on the other side of me and told me to focus on a little light and not to move.

This laser machine burned away the parts of the cornea that I don't need (I hope). It's supposed to be a "cool laser," but I could smell the tissue burning away. Then the doctor brushed the flap back down with what looked like, from my point of view, a little paint brush. The whole time the nurse was cheering, "Don't move. You're doing great."

Then they replicated the procedure on my left eye. Chieko watched the procedure via a monitor in the next room. I wish I had a video. I was in the laser room less than 15 minutes.

The doctor checked my eyes using a machine in the monitor room, the nurse taped plastic grasshopper bubbles over my eyes for protection, and Chieko drove me home. Everything was a bit milky looking, but I could see okay.

The Results

I wore the plastic bubbles for the rest of the day and through the night and have to wear them for the next five nights. I also had to drop steroids in my eyes every hour yesterday and antibiotics four times, as well as artificial tears throughout the day. The steroids and antibiotics continue for seven days, and the tears for up to six months. For the first two hours, my eyes watered constantly and the light was uncomfortable. I listened to the TV with my eyes closed until about noon. My eyes were pretty comfortable after that, except for the stupid plastic bubbles. I watched TV until bedtime. I have to be careful for at least a week and actually longer not to bump my eyes or let anything get into them. Besides the possibility of infection, the 150-micrometre flaps can wrinkle. That would be a bad thing.

I noticed in the afternoon that everything in my right eye from TV distance (about 10 feet) to infinity was very clear, but my left eye saw everything fuzzy. Today I went in for my follow up with Dr. Masihdas, and my right eye is seeing 20/20, while my left eye is less than 20/40. He said this is normal, that the corneas are swollen, and they'll take a week or maybe even a few weeks to recover. Then we can test my vision. It is possible that I'll have to do a follow-up on the left eye--there was a guy in the center yesterday having a follow up done. The second time, they don't have to recut the flap, just lift it.

I really like that I can see to drive, hike, whatever, without contacts or glasses. The problem is, I can't see anything up close. I can hardly read my watch. I can't see the computer monitor. I couldn't read the menu at Suehiro. And it doesn't help to bring the objects closer. I can read the speedometer in the Tahoe, but it's a strain to read the time on the radio display.

I bought some reading glasses at Target, three pairs for $11. They're ok for reading the price on a menu, but they make the computer keyboard look like it's ergonomically curved when it's not, and the flat monitor looks like the curved screen at the movie theater. An hour of working like that gave me a serious headache. I then bought reading glasses from Costco, three pairs for $18, that have aspheric lenses to "reduce eyestrain and fatigue" and "prevent distortion." They're actually better, but objects in the edges still bend. And what junior high design class styles these ugly things?

Anyway, that's my report so far. I'll have to wait until my eyes settle down, I get a pair of decent computer and reading glasses, and I get used to seeing what I couldn't see and not seeing what I could before I decide whether it was worth the cost and permanence.